Stick plane with plastic shell

Why cant someone out there make a basic plane like the light stick that has different shells to fit over it making it into any kind of plane..You could keep all your electronics in the base unit and add on the outer shell and control surfaces and make it into whatever you feel like flying..then all you have to buy is the different outer covering and wing kit and you have a whole new plane..I just think it would be cool to be able to swap out for a new looking plane without the building

you could have hard points on things that attach to the stick so that the shell could be removed with pins..like the way an r/c car shell is attached...the kits could come painted and with control horns already on..just make the change of skin and fly..

Slowflyer, you know of any hobby shops in the area that have electric stuff?? you fly at a club or what? I had some ladie tell me that her husbend used to fly at the I think contra loma field and is now at the new one...

The closest hobby shop is in Concord. It's called Hobbytown USA. They're located at the SouthEast corner of Clayton rd, and Treat Blvd. There is also a guy named Mel in Antioch that sells stuff out of his house, I have his phone number if you need it.

The field/club you are referring to is called DVRC. They are now located in Pittsburg. I will have to look up the name of the street that they are at the end of, however, it is usually too windy at their field to fly parkflyer type planes. It is also a very expensive club to join, costing about $200 the last time I checked to join that club.

The cool club to fly with is the Concord Model Engineers. They have a city approved flying site located at the end of Court lane in Concord. This is right up the street from Hobbytown. You don't have to be a club member to fly there, but joining their club is only $20 a year. They have entertaining monthly meetings on the second Wed. of the month at the Concord Senior center.

They meet on Sundays at around 2pm to fly at Court lane. This is the active local electric only club in the area.

I will e mail or pm you my phone number. Maybe we can get together and run over to the hobby shop, and I can show you where the flying field is. I also have some flying spots in Antioch. Give me a call when you get time. I'm off work for a couple of weeks due to an idiot rear ending me.

I have various wings and motors for my J3 Stik, including some aileron wings, biplane and triplane. I replaced the wooden stik with a carbon rod.

I haven't made any bodies yet because I can't find a source of light but stiff material - say 1mm depron or similar. I've considered bending 1mm balsa by soaking it in ammonia etc but foam would be more forgiving. Last week I did some experiments with acrylic floor paint and various paper and fibreglass, nothing really turned out brilliant, although two layers of 190 gsn paper was stiffest (and heaviest).

In the park I've found that the geared 280 with a 7x360 NiMH gives 8 -10 min flights and some power for light winds. The geared 300 with 8060prop and 7x900NiMH is very powerful but can be too heavy for the lightweight carbon rod I used so I'm planning to build a stronger version. Indoors I generally use IPS A and the 360x7 NiMH pack, mucho power and flight times with a lightweight stick and biplane wings.

I make all thewings with the same distance front to back at the centre , they sit on two small pads 4cm by 1 cm and are held on with elastic bands. The motors are banded to a flat plate which has one side rail to ensure alignement. Can post a pic if you're interested.

Seems like a brilliant idea that we've had, I bet many others have too - the down side is after a bad crash you have no plane to fly (unless you brought others with you).

Good idea really :-) I've been thinking of some ways to maybe use meat tray foam to dress up the sticks with. Would be similar to the profile models. You could have a short stick model with some profile and maybe do knife edge I think the SS would be a good prospect for experimentation Could have a war bird or even a passenger type layout - - - - - lots of ways to play.

I've been thinking about something like this too, though probably using balsa. One big advantage is that you could make very detailed scale fuses but they would have to be strnong because the stick takes the load. OTOH you might find that in a crash the meticulously built scale fuse would turn into so much dust while your stick survived

Many years ago there was a company that made glow planes that were similar in principle to your idea. They were made out of a material similar to coroplast and the entire motor/gas tank/radio gear setup mounted to a pod that was inserted into the fuselage through the nose of the craft. They had several different models that all accepted the same pod, so you were only out the dollar amount of the plane iteself. As I recall, they had low wing aerobatic flyers and high-wing trainer types and other flyers in between, so you could fly the gamut on a single pod. I've never been into glow so wasn't interested in them, but I always thought it was a neat idea. I may still have an old R/C mag with pics, I'll post it if I can find it.

The material you are thinking of is called US Air Core. I think it is actually coroplast. The ad was in the September or October issue of Model Aviation. The company bears the name of the material. They also make the slide in/out tray with everything, engine (slimer) battery, servos, and reciever. They still sell it. It would have little application in electrics as coroplast is heavy

The material you are thinking of is called US Air Core. I think it is actually coroplast. The ad was in the September or October issue of Model Aviation. The company bears the name of the material. They also make the slide in/out tray with everything, engine (slimer) battery, servos, and reciever. They still sell it. It would have little application in electrics as coroplast is heavy

Good grief, they're still making them? Wow, those have been around a looooong time! I haven't picked up anything but eelctric/silent flight mags in quite a while. I used to subscribe to R/C Modeler and saw them in there a lot.

Now that you gave me the name, a quick 'net search turned up their site here: